Southern Metro's VS Northern Metro's

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There is little doubt that the Southern USA is growing fast and many Southern Metropolitan areas now have population numbers that rival many Northern Metropolises. But is it really fair to compare a Southern Metropolis to a Northern Metropolis, given the difference in population densities and given that commuting patterns in the North are stymied by winter weather driving hazards? The methodology for determining Metropolitan populations is based upon politics and commuting patterns, but many areas in the North, if they included the square miles that goes into Southern Metro calculations, would be much larger.

If you take an area like Atlanta, it has no significant metropolitan area within 100 miles of it. Part of metro Atlanta is as far as 50 miles away from Atlanta, but peoples commuting patterns and politics makes it part of the Atlanta Metro. On the other hand, take a place like Boston. If you superimpose the land area the encompasses areas like Atlanta, Dallas-Fort worth or Houston over the Boston area you would added about 2 million more people to the count. Places like Providence RI, which has over 1 million residents in its MSA, would become part of Boston. Take a City like Detroit; you would add over a million people by doing the same superimposing, picking up Toledo Ohio and Windsor Ontario (Canada) to its total.

Take someone who lives in Youngstown, Ohio. Youngtown Ohio is about 50 miles from the Metropolitan area of Cleveland and Pittsburgh, the same distance needed for travel to Atlanta from the far flung reaches of Metro Atlanta. Yet, people in Youngstown don

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However in some cites (ie Charlotte) an emphasis is being made on the Core. Larger metros like Atlanta, are redeveloping their inner neighborhoods and taking great strides in improving transit. This , in time, will help to densify Southern metros, but they will never be a NYC, Boston, or Philly. Never. That is why so many people move here. They want big city amentities, but love the cookie cutter type homes that sit on an acre lot. It creates a car-centric society that eventually is forced to resort to sprawl to mantain its percieved allure.